The Lake Forest College swimming & diving teams competed in the University of Chicago's Phoenix Fall Classic over the weekend. The Forester men finished third out of eight teams and the women were seventh out of 10. Highlighting Sunday's action was a third-place finish in the women's 50-freestyle by sophomore Alex Dunn.
Dunn barely qualified for the A-final, turning in the event's eighth-fastest time of 25.36 seconds in the morning prelim. Her third-place time of 24.97 seconds in the final was less than a second off the school record she set at last year's conference championships, an impressive feat for late November. She was the only Forester swimmer to qualify for an A-final and turned in one of the team's 12 B-final appearances. Among them were ninth-place finishes by senior Sarah Stoklosa in the 400-IM (5:05.46) and freshman Lauren Dalecky in the 200-breastsroke (2:40.13).
Junior diver Christina Pekar won Saturday's 3-meter diving competition with 430.70 points and sophomore Lara Winkler was the runner-up in Sunday's 1-meter event with a score of 282.70.
On the men's side, senior Garr Punnett posted the highest finish in an individual event, placing second in the 200-backstroke with a time of 1:56.06. He was also fifth in the 100-butterfly in 52.85 seconds. Freshmen Orion Huey, Virgil Thomas, and Travis Johnson joined Punnett as Lake Forest made up half the field in the 200-backstroke A-final. Huey placed fifth (2:01.87), Virgil seventh (2:04.80), and Johnson eighth (2:05.35).
Other top-eight finishes by the Forester men were turned in by senior Zachary Wenner in the 500-freestyle (7th in 4:54.01), junior Mark Wilcoxen in the 200-butterfly (8th in 2:05.25), freshman Mateuz Obstoj in 1-meter diving (5th with 348.40 points), sophomore Kristopher Korth in the 200-breaststroke (6th in 2:13.96), and both Thomas (5th in 56.58) and junior Brock Mone (8th in 58.72) in the 100-backstroke. Thomas, Korth, Punnett, and Wenner were also sixth in the 200-medley relay with a time of 1:40.42 and fifth in the 800-freestyle relay in 7:11.56. Punnett, Korth, and Wenner were joined by freshman Drake Nickell in the meet-ending 400-freestyle relay and placed sixth in 3:15.82.
In addition to a dozen top-eight finishes, the Forester men added 23 more placings in the top 16 and their third-place finish as a team is their best in five appearances at the meet.
Lake Forest will not compete next weekend. The Foresters' next meet is the Carthage Swimming Classic in Kenosha, Wisconsin, December 6-7. The Forester divers will compete in the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Diving Invite on December 7.
